Monday, August 2, 2010

August is here! (Thank goodness) Hopefully this signals an end to the craziness that was July and I can get back into my blogging groove. It has been hard to hole up indoors when there are so few sunny days in this part of the world. Mr Humble and the Little Humble have been demanding a few less desserts and a few more hours of sunshine.

The throwing of river rocks is best doneoutside of the Humble Kitchen

However the mornings are beginning to be foggy and chilly once again and we've been spending more and more time indoors. This has resulted in some real time in the kitchen and I have plenty lined up for this week.

Mother Humble is in town visiting as well, helping herself to all my butter and whatever I'm currently turning out, be it gelato, pastries or today's cheesecake. The rapidly disappearing butter has been made up for by her trip to the local farmers market and I am flush with oodles of local fresh fruit.

The plan was to make jams but since that hasn't materialized, I'm stealing some for this week's cooking and today's desert: Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

Place a 9" spring form pan onto a double layer of wide aluminum foil. Wrap up the sides of the pan to make it water tight. You don't want any foil seams or edges on the bottom or low on the sides of the pan, or water may creep in while it is baking.

Combine the graham crackers, 2 tablespoons sugar and the melted butter in a large bowl and mix. Firmly press the crumbs into the bottom of your spring form pan. I find that a flat bottomed ramekin or coffee cup is useful for pressing the crumbs evenly and tightly into the pan.

Bake the crust until set, roughly 10 minutes and then allow it to cool on a wire rack.

Reduce your oven's temperature to 325°F.

Purée the raspberries and then strain out the seeds and any solids. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the strained puree. Pour into a small sauce pan and bring the raspberry sauce to a bare simmer over medium low heat. Reduce the sauce for 1-2 minutes until it has thickened slightly and then set aside to cool.

In the bowl of your mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and fluffy (roughly 3 minutes). Reduce the mixer's speed to low and add the 1 1/2 cups of sugar in a slow steady stream. Beat in the salt and vanilla and then on low speed, beat in the eggs, one at at time. Adding the next after the first has been incorporated. Take care not to over mix as the eggs can trap air in the batter and this leads to all sorts of cheesecake trouble.

Once you've mixed in the last egg, pour the batter into your prepared crust. Dot the top of the batter with drops of the raspberry sauce and with a knife or wooden skewer, swirl the surface of the batter to create the marbled effect. Reserve the remaining sauce for garnishing later.

Set the cake into a large roasting pan and place into the oven. Carefully ladle the boiling water into the roasting pan. Fill the pan no higher than the lowest edge of the foil, or you run the risk of baking a cheesecake soup.

Bake until the cake is puffy and set but the center is still has a slight wobble. This will take approximately 65 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Transfer the cake to the refrigerator and allow to chill overnight (or a minimum of 6 hours).

To serve, run a knife around the edge of the cake to release from the pan and remove the spring form collar.

Slice with a damp clean knife

Serve slices with a little (or a lot) of the remaining raspberry sauce.

Enjoy!

Note on the giveaway: I mentioned I would do the drawing sometime last week, however I'm still waiting to have the gift certificate in hand. To all of you eagerly awaiting to see if you're $150 richer in CSN kitchen swag, patience. Once I have the certificate, will do the final announcement.

32 comments:

Beautiful! I do a similar recipe with blueberries when they come in from the co-op. Here's the link: http://southlakesmom.blogspot.com/2009/07/crockpot-cooking.htmlMy family says I haven't mastered it yet though, so they'll need a LOT more samples to see if I ever get it right. Ha ha.. I'm on to them.

I've baked this cheesecake many times over the years and have never had trouble with the recipe.

If you're worried about the cake cracking as it cools, I suggest placing a collar of parchment inside the pan before pouring the batter. This will allow the cheesecake to pull away from the sides of the pan as it cools and contracts.

I should note that the raspberry sauce itself can lead to cracking (it messes with the cake's surface tension). However if the sauce has been thickened a bit (the reduction on the stove) and you don't use big gobs of it on the surface of the cake, the cracks are usually minor.

Oh, this looks so beautiful... I want that so much. However, I'm back home in Malaysia and raspberries/berries in general are not exactly local fruit and therefore expensive and not the best quality :( I'm going to have to save this recipe for once I'm back on British soil. I've never made a baked cheesecake using the water-bath method so will have to give it a go!

I once won a Dutch oven cookoff at Scout camp with a cheesecake recipe that was to die for.... chocolate wafers and butter for the crust, then two-thirds chocolate cheesecake batter covered with one-third with almond extract in it. Garnished with whipped cream (chilled and then shaken up in a Nalgene water bottle) and strawberries. OMG, you never had anything so good for breakfast with coffee in camp.

Such a Beautiful cake.. I tried it today but it was too runny and the raspberry sauce just sunk in! :...(Dont know what I did wrong though..Hopefully it will taste good, didnt try it yet! :)Fingers Crossed!

Really all it takes is a quick swirl with a skewer. I just try to 'tag' all the raspberry blobs once as drag it through.

That's it.

Though I will say the less you swirl, the better it looks. (Marbling is all about knowing when to stop.)

Ala'a,

Hmm. Not certain what happened, but I can offer up a few tips.

Use full fat cream cheese (not low-fat or non-fat) it produces the best batter.

Don't use a lot of raspberry sauce on top of the cake. The more sauce you have in one spot the deeper it will sink. Use just enough to create the design. If you really want to use a more raspberry sauce in this cake, you can swirl it into the batter, not just on top. Marbling the entire cheesecake.

The thicker the raspberry sauce, the less it will sink into the batter. So if your sauce is thin, allow it to simmer on the stove-top for a little longer until it has a thicker, syrup like consistency.

If all else fails. Tell everyone it is supposed to do that and pass it off as a marbled cheesecake.

Thanks for the tips.. I just wanted to let you know everybody absolutely loved it and i didnt even have to say that its supposed to be a marble cheesecake, they assumed it on their own :)Thank you for the beautiful recipe and help..

This looks delicious! Your photographs are beautiful! I've recently launched my own blog, I'd love for you to check it out and let me know what you think! www.prettygoodfood.comThanks and Happy Cooking!